“Amazing to see” - Magical Palou producing IndyCar greatness

Written by Archie O’Reilly

Credit: Chris Jones

As he emerged from his car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), Will Power had something he wanted to say to Álex Palou. 

“Man, I’ve been around a long time. And in this field, in this time, it is amazing to see something like that. It really is.”

Palou had just sealed a fourth victory in the first five races of the 2025 IndyCar season on the road course at IMS, extending his championship advantage to a staggering 97 points little over a quarter of the way into the campaign. 

With his only non-victory being a second place at Long Beach, the Spaniard could hardly have had a better start to a season in which he can complete a championship three-peat after his titles in 2023 and 2024. At only 28 years old and in only his sixth season in IndyCar - and fifth with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) - he is already bidding for a fourth title overall.

The best start to a season since AJ Foyt in 1964, greatness is unfolding before our very eyes. Even Palou’s competitors are in awe of what he is presently producing. 

And you cannot blame them. 

“It is incredibly tough just to win a race in IndyCar now,” continued Power, an undoubtable IndyCar great himself. “So to go four wins and one second in five races, that is stout. It’s very impressive. It’s something we’ll look back on. 

“As much as we want to beat him, I have appreciation for people that are very good at their craft. And he is extremely well-rounded and good at his craft. He’s one of the best.”

Palou is producing a level that is so preciously rare in IndyCar. It feels almost impossible to be so dominant in and bring such a sense of inevitability to a championship famed for its fierce level of competition and unpredictability.

To already be regarded as one of the greats while not even 30 years old and his IndyCar career still so young speaks to how uniquely special what we are currently witnessing is.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

“It’s crazy,” Palou said. “I’m sad that it’s going to end at some point. It’s going to be tough in my career to feel as good as I feel now. I know that and that makes me sad but happy at the same time. It’s amazing. 

“I know I’m with the best team out here and they give me the best tools they have, the best people to fight for races every single weekend. It feels sweet.”

It has been clear from the outset in 2025 that Palou has been thoroughly enjoying the process of the season and the extent to which things have clicked. He is acutely aware of how incredible this run is but is also not feeling any pressure that comes with that.

He looks incredibly at ease at all times - unflappably calm and never flustered. Every win is greeted with the same emphatic celebration as the last. Palou’s infectious, beaming grin cannot be wiped from his face.

Palou has learned to really appreciate these moments. He knows they will not last forever.

“The past two years have been more like that,” he admitted. “The past two years, I enjoy it a lot more than I used to. I think 2022 was a hard year that we didn’t win until the last race of the season. I struggle a little bit also off track. 

“That made me realise how amazing it is to have cool moments. Then being a dad also made everything so much better. I’ve been able to enjoy and I force myself to enjoy every single win. I take it as if it’s my first and my last one. 

“You can see with the celebrations and also with the team and how we enjoy them. By no means I think that this is just a win for me. It’s really special to be here.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Without fail, Palou always credits the collective effort and collaboration with his No.10 CGR team. And just like their driver on track, it is a crew which is flawlessly precise in the pit lane and meticulous in setting up the car and with every strategy decision.

The camaraderie, sense of cooperation and supreme execution is unmatched.

“You’re definitely taking a very close look at what he’s doing, what the team is doing,” Power conceded. “It makes everyone work harder. It really does. When you struggle, everyone has a really close look at what the other guy is doing.

“It’s just clicking so well for him right now. It’s absolutely phenomenal what he’s doing.”

Palou is in a different league to anyone who tries to bring the challenge to him at the moment. That started from practice and into qualifying, where he led every segment and took pole position by over 0.4 seconds despite a lock-up in the Fast Six session.

“He stays focused,” said Barry Wanser, strategist for the No.10 car. “You saw it in qualifying. On his best lap, he locked up going into one… big lockup. His recovery to be able to run a 69.4 [second lap] after that on those tyres was pretty impressive

“He backed up his braking points and was still able to get the speed out of the car and the time out of the car to get the pole. I mean, that’s hard to do.”

No matter the track or the circumstances, Palou has an awe-inspiring ability to always be there at the head of the field while others’ performances fluctuate. His one ‘weakness’ had been earmarked as his outright qualifying pace, but now with back-to-back poles, Palou has flown out of the blocks in 2025 with field-topping pure pace.

And he is delivering this at a standard of consistency scarcely seen before.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Even before the race, the No.10 team strategised perfectly to save a new set of soft alternate tyres for the Fast Six and have a fresh set in hand for the race amid a one-off mandate to run two sets of each compound across the 85 laps.

There is such a culture of confidence and trust in one another in the CGR camp that Palou did not feel the need to unnecessarily waste precious sets of alternates in practice of Round 1 in qualifying given teams only had four sets across the weekend.

Heading into the race, the plan was for Palou to use a used set of alternates and primaries in the first two stints. That way, he took that pain in the first half of the race and, if he stayed in contention until the final two stints, he would have fresh primaries and alternates to close out the race.

And that proved the latest masterstroke from Wanser and company. Even if Rahal led the most laps after snatching the lead of Palou in Turn 1 on his new soft tyres, the Spaniard was still ultimately an unstoppable force.

“[Rahal] got a great start,” Palou said. “And then he was really side-by-side to me. The only way I had to keep position was to force him off-off. I thought he was already up front so I was like: ‘Okay, let’s be patient and hopefully we can have good pace to follow him and maybe overtake him on pit strategy.’” 

Palou knew, after locking up in qualifying alternates intended to be used in the race, he would be “crying “ for that stint. He even fell under duress from Devlin DeFrancesco behind before acing the in and out-laps for his first pit stop. 

That is where the race started to change. Palou had a clear pace advantage on race-leading Rahal on the harder primary tyres after the first round of pit stops. But lapped traffic became a factor and passing appeared tough within a condensed top four.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Palou successfully fended off pressure from Scott McLaughlin, who was behind on the softer compound having been the only top-eight starter to start on the hard tyres. It became a two-horse race out front between Rahal and Palou heading into the second round of stops.

As the pair pitted simultaneously, Rahal marginally kept his advantage. But with two new sets of tyres to use to the end, it was Palou primed to pounce.

As Palou opted for new primary tyres - leaving fresh alternates for the finish - Rahal turned to used alternates, cornering him into a primary final stint. And a consistent killer on the primaries, Palou delivered another monstrous stint on the hard compound.

“We started on the used softer tyres,” Wanser explained. “Graham started on the stickers so he had a big advantage on us over the start. Then we had to settle in and try to get as far as we could on the used [tyres]. 

“We were fortunate enough to be really strong on the primary tyres - get 23, 24 laps out of them. That reduced the amount of laps we had to do on our sticker alternates for the end. That gave us a huge advantage. 

“Álex’s ability to go fast, take care of the tyres and get the fuel number, it’s second to none.”

A familiar tale, it became a case of Palou not having to lead the race to feel in the box seat - in control from in the shadows and lurking, ready to pounce. Palou bided his time but realised Rahal was struggling. 

On Lap 58, he reeled in Rahal and snatched the lead from the defenceless No.15 machine.

“He was struggling a little bit with the used soft tyres,” Palou observed. “It’s easy for us to spot. You can see in [Turn] 14… whenever you leave a mark, that means the car is sliding - also out of [Turn] 4. He was doing it for two or three laps. I knew we were in a good spot.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

By the time he had stopped for a final time, with Rahal suffering a bobble in the pits and falling off the podium, Palou had pulled a gap of over eight seconds to Pato O’Ward in second. And that quickly became 10-plus seconds.

It was credit to Palou’s pace on the used tyres in the opening half of the race that he could pull the plug as he did on fresh tyres late on. And it frankly transitioned into another beatdown.

“I was trying my best,” Palou explained. “The first stint, Graham had new tyres so that’s why he was pulling a lot more. I was struggling a lot there. Then we chased Graham back. When I was behind him, I wanted to overtake him but the issue was that we also had traffic. 

“I got dirty air from two cars so I couldn’t really move there. I was stuck. I started hurting my tyres. I was not trying to be patient. I was patient but I was trying my best to try and overtake him.”

It was, once again, a monumental team effort - a pinpoint strategy executed to perfection. 

There was some jeopardy 15 laps from the finish as a mechanical issue for David Malukas brought out a first caution since the opening lap of the opening race of the season in St. Petersburg. It drew to a close a 408-lap run of green flag racing.

“I didn’t like that part,” Palou said. “Until you cross the finish line, the race is not over. In a way, that’s why we were not pushing 100 percent. We were trying to save our tyre there just in case there was going to be a late restart. And also our overtake, we wanted to keep some. 

“I’m glad we did because otherwise I would have been struggling a lot more at the end.”

Palou managed the restart expertly and never really came under pressure. He immediately settled back into his rhythm, consistently quicker than any other driver on track by several tenths as he meticulously recouped a lead of over five seconds by the chequered flag.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Attention now swiftly turns to the Indianapolis 500, where Palou is a pole-sitter and runner-up. He knows the run has to end somewhere but has quiet confidence ahead of making the switch to the oval at IMS.

“What if it doesn’t end and suddenly we win the Indy 500?” he theorised. “That would be pretty sweet. The normal thing would be not to win it, so if we can make it happen, it would be super special. 

“We’ve done everything that we could in terms of results and the team as well working with our speedway car. Hopefully we can battle. The Indy 500 is a different game. I don’t think we’re the favourites but we’re going to try everything we have.”

If Palou can win the Indy 500, his name will only be etched further into racing immortality at an unparalleled early point in his career.

“The 500, that will be a very different story,” Power said. “I would be shocked if he dominates that one. I think he’ll be up there but so will a lot of other people. That would be something if he went on and won that. 

“That would be one of the greatest motorsport moments I’ve seen in my career.”

Despite his extensive resume, Palou is still chasing a first career oval win. But there is no better time to end that chase than later this month.

“It’s perfect timing to do that,” Palou said. “I would love that. If that happens, I’ll get crazy - like very crazy. If that happens, things are going to fly - flames here, flames there. It’s going to be amazing. I’m not a crazy person… but very, very crazy. 

“Everybody in Indiana will know that I’m an Indy 500 champion if that happens.”

Boring this. Boring that. But why not just enjoy greatness while we are living through this? One of racing’s great stories is unfolding in real time. 

This is truly historic from Álex Palou.